Semi-random musings about SQL Server performance

Updated to include SP1 CU9: There have already been nine Cumulative Updates (CU) for the Service Pack 1 branch of SQL Server 2012. There have been a fairly high number of hotfixes in every one of these Cumulative Updates, as more people are using SQL Server 2012 over the past eighteen months. SQL Server 2012 SP1 has all of the fixes through SQL Server 2012 RTM CU2. If you are running SQL Server 2012, I really think you should be running the latest SQL Server 2012 Service Pack and Cumulative Update. Right now, that means Service Pack 1, CU9 (Build 11.0.3412).

This table shows the SP1 CU builds that have been released so far.

Build

Description

Release Date

11.0.3000

SP1 RTM

November 7, 2012

11.0.3321

SP1 CU1

November 20, 2012

11.0.3339

SP1 CU2

January 21, 2013

11.0.3349

SP1 CU3

March 18, 2013

11.0.3368

SP1 CU4

May 30, 2013

11.0.3373

SP1 CU5

July 15, 2013

11.0.3381

SP1 CU6

September 16, 2013

11.0.3393

SP1 CU7

November 18, 2013

11.0.3401

SP1 CU8

January 20, 2014

11.0.3412

SP1 CU9

March 17, 2014

Table 1: SQL Server 2012 SP1 CU Builds

You can follow the KB article link below to see all of the CU builds for the SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 1 branch.

Like I did in my previous post, I decided to scan the hotfix list for all of the Cumulative Updates in the SP1 branch, looking for performance and general reliability-related fixes for the SQL Server Database Engine. I came up with the list below, but this listing is completely arbitrary on my part. You may come up with a completely different list, based on what SQL Server 2012 features you are using.

Here are the fixes in the RTM branch, before Service Pack 1 was released (you will get these when you install SP1):

Again, the idea here is to give you a lot of concrete reasons to want to stay current with the latest SQL Server 2012 SP and CU, by pointing out some of the more valuable fixes in each CU in the Service Pack 1 branch.